Blind as a Bat (A 1st Doctor historical story)
by rrrhhh
Summary: France, 1824, Louis Braille has invented a reading system for blind people, but there is another man, Captain Charles Barbier, who claims that HE has invented Braille, and will stop at nothing until Louis has been killed. Now the Doctor is faced with a dilemma, interfere with history and save Louis' life... or let history take its course and chance that Braille never gets invented


The year was 1824, it was a cold winter's night at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, and all the boys were sleeping in their dorms… all except for one.

A young man with short blonde curly hair was wandering the hallways, with his hands firmly placed on the wall to guide him. He hummed a little tune to himself, but immediately stopped when he heard the sound of the TARDIS.

"Who's there?" He called out.

The young man was now standing still in a silent hallway, trying to remember what direction he had heard the sound come from. Then the doors to the TARDIS made a loud creaking sound, and the young man quickly spun around to face this great telephone box in all its glory.

The Doctor, along with his granddaughter Susan, and her school teachers Ian and Barbara, stepped out of the TARDIS and greeted the young man. Ian offered the young man a handshake, but then quickly retracted it.

"My apologies," he said. "I didn't realize you were blind."

"Don't mention it," the young man replied. "It's something I get a lot from the general public, and come to think of it, I also seem to get a lot of apples to the head too. They're fond of that sort of thing."

"Apples to the head?" Susan asked surprised.

"Yeah, it's something we blind people get a lot. But the funny part is that it's not the pain from the apple that bothers me; it's the ignorance that the sighted people display towards me that really puts a lump in my throat. But judging by the tone in your voice and your lack of knowledge of the blind, I don't think you're from around these parts are you?"

"No," replied the Doctor. "We're travellers, and we're a long way from home. This might sound strange to you my boy, but what year might it be?"

"What year might it be?" the young man replied in confusion. "I think if you're asking a question like that, you should probably get some rest."

At that moment the Head Master of the institute barged down the corridor and started screaming at the young man. The young man was supposed to be in bed, and it was against the rules to be wandering the corridors at night.

The Head Master's name was Dr. Sébastien Guillié. He was a slender man with short, dark wavy hair, and black sideburns. He wore a large suit, and on most days he would look very presentable in it, but he had been working the night watch shift for quite some hours now, and he looked like he could collapse from exhaustion at any moment. His face was red, his shirt was wrinkled, and he was missing a dress shoe on his right foot.

After yelling at the young man for a few moments, and sending him off back to bed, Dr. Guillié then turned to face the Doctor and his companions.

"…and I'm assuming you're trespassers. You'd better give me one good reason why I shouldn't phone the police right now and report you!"

The Doctor never liked someone taking the higher authority over him, and he also didn't like someone from a lesser species accusing him of a crime, so without thinking he barked at the Head Master, and told him to immediately leave the building, without even fully realizing who the Head Master was.

"You order ME to vacate this building?" the Head Master asked the Doctor. "You have certainly got some nerve my friend! Do you know who I am?"

Quickly realizing this argument was escalating, Ian quickly intervened and separated the two men before any real violence could occur. He knew that the Doctor wouldn't cause any real harm, but he wasn't so sure about the Head Master, so he quickly clasped his arms around his torso and restrained the man.

"Let me go!" the Head Master screamed.

At that moment, two associates of Dr. Guillié ran down the and separated Ian from the Head Master. They then proceeded to restrain Susan and Barbara.

"Make one move and they're dead!" one of the men screamed.

"Please sir," Ian said. "This is all a misunderstanding; we never meant to hurt anyone. Please let our friends go."

The two men let go of Susan and Barbra, and everyone started to relax and calm down. Ian apologized, but the Head Master didn't accept it, and said that there would be consequences for his actions.

The Head Master confiscated the TARDIS from the Doctor's possession, and told him that if he wanted this 'strange looking police box' back, he and Ian would have to work for it at the school, until the Head Master deemed them worthy enough to have it back. As for Susan and Barbara, they were ordered to leave the school at once, and were escorted off the premises by one of the Head Master's associates.

The next morning the Head Master stormed into the basement of the school where Ian and the Doctor were sleeping, and yelled at them to get up.

The Head Master considered Ian a young man, and was ordered to do manual labour for the entire day, and the Head Master considered the Doctor to be a weak old man, so he was forced to help slave away in the kitchen all day making the meals for the school boys. Both men quickly realized that the living conditions of this school were very poor, and there was little to no help given to assist these blind young men with their daily activities.

Later that day, Ian was scrubbing the floor tiles in a hallway when he noticed the young man from the night before approach him. Now that there was some light in the room, Ian could see his face clearer. There wasn't anything special about this young man's face, but for some reason, Ian thought that he looked familiar. Ian knew that this time period was somewhere in the past, but he still wasn't sure of the exact date, and he thought to himself that this man was probably a figurehead of some sort of event in history.

"Hello again," Ian said with a smile. The young man stopped in his tracks for a moment, and then spoke.

"You're the man from last night, I recognize your voice. Everyone's talking about you, word got out pretty fast of that incident with the Head Master. I'm impressed, not that many people have the courage to confront him like that."

"Well don't thank me, it was my friend who provoked him and got me into this mess." Ian replied. "But I don't think we have been introduced before. Do you mind if I get your name?"

"Certainly, it's Louis, Louis Braille," the young man replied.

That was when Ian realized who this young man was. Louis Braille was none other than the man who had invented a reading method for the blind. A very intelligent man, but his work was often overlooked because of the ignorance of sighted people. Ian remembered Barbara telling him about Louis a few years back, but other than that, there wasn't that much mention about him in present day Earth.

The two of them talked for a short while longer, and then Louis expressed that he had to get to class. When Ian offered to guide him to his classroom, Louis refused and said that if anybody caught Ian doing that, he might get into even more trouble. Blind people weren't allowed to have guides, unless the guide was a teacher of the school. For the rest of the time however, the boys at the school were told to use the wall to help guide them instead.

While Ian was talking with Louis, the Doctor was in the kitchen helping the school's faculty serve lunch. With their help he had prepared a soup made from some old wilted vegetables. Most of the boys never ate the content inside the soup; they just drank the broth instead. Nobody dared to taste whatever was in the soup, and after working a full day in the kitchen, the Doctor could understand why. There was nothing but old moldy food in the whole place, and making a 'leftover' usually meant using unwanted food from a month ago. The food they served wouldn't kill you, but it could definitely make you sick if you had a low immune system.

After the meal the Doctor was cleaning up, and he put his hand in his pocket to grab something. To his surprise, his hand went right through a hole that was in his pocket. He gasped and his eyes grew wide with fear. That pocket was where he always stored the key to the TARDIS, and now it had fallen out onto the ground somewhere. If any person got a hold of that key, they'd surely turn it into the Head Master who still had the TARDIS in his procession, and the thought of him having the power of time travel made the Doctor shiver with fear.

Quickly he started looking around the kitchen floor, but the key was nowhere in sight. He looked everywhere, high and low, but soon came to the conclusion that the key was not in the kitchen. The Doctor began to worry, and thought it would be best if he went to the Head Master and tried to get his TARDIS back, before anything else could happen.

Unfortunately something else did happen. As the Doctor was making his way through the corridors towards the Head Master's office, he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw something engraved on the wall. It was a symbol, and there could be no mistaking it, this symbol was the Seal of Rassilon… the symbol of the Timelords.

The Doctor immediately took a step back in fear. He hadn't been on the run for that long now, and he was shocked that the Timelords managed to find him so quickly. They were here, and they were probably stalking him right now, waiting for the right moment to make an arrest. The Doctor needed to get out of this time period, and fast.

He ran to the Head Master's office as fast as his old legs would carry him, and barged into the room with no disregard for knocking.

The room was a small office, with two chairs, a desk, and a large painting of a Swan hanging above the desk. The Head Master was sitting behind his desk and looked very cross at the Doctor.

"You dare have the audacity to barge in like this?" the Head Master bellowed. "I'm warning you old man, one more false move and I'm calling the police!"

The Doctor then realized that he had stepped out of line again, and no matter how important it was to him to get the TARDIS back, he also knew that right now he had to respect the wishes of this human, even if he wasn't as intelligent as he was. The Doctor decided that the best thing to do would be to calm himself down, and have a seat across from the Head Master.

"I have come to make a request," the Doctor proposed. "I would like to have my police box back."

The Head Master glared at the Doctor, without even raising an eyebrow, and just sat there as if he were frozen solid. The Head Master had seen quite a few things in his lifetime, but a strange old man asking for his wooden box back was definitely one of the weirdest things he had encountered.

"You dare ask for your box back? Why is it so important to you anyways? It's just a wooden box… or perhaps maybe it's a wooden box that you have stolen? It does have the word POLICE on it, and I am certain that you are not a police man, so I'm afraid until you finish working here, my answer is no."

At that moment a retired Navy Captain entered the room. His name was Captain Charles Barbier, and he stood in the office with pride showing off his very expensive uniform. His ego was the size of the moon, and because of the contributions he made to protect the country of France, everyone in his mind was supposed to worship him when he was nearby. In his own image, he was superior to all of man, and even the Head Master agreed with that fact.

"Captain Barbier!" the Head Master said with a smile. "What might I owe the pleasure of this visit my good sir?"

Charles stuck his nose high in the air and began to speak in his very elegant and pure French accent.

"My good friend, I have come because a student of yours dares to say he has improved my Night Writing system. He has given it the name of 'Braille' and is taking all the credit for it, when in fact it is my invention, and my original method is obviously better than his improved one. Whatever improvements he has made to it, certainly can't be better than the original system I created. I have come to inform you that I will be speaking to this student, by the name of Louis Braille, and warning him that if he tries to present my Night Writing to the public and take credit for it, there will be consequences."

Barbier then turned and left the office walking away very fashionably with his nose still high in the air. The Doctor then decided that he had no further business in the Head Master's office, so he decided to leave as well.

The next morning Ian was fixing a wooden railing on a staircase when he heard something that shocked him. He was working right next to a door, and couldn't help but overhear a conversation that was happening on the other side.

"That's an old Type-40 TARDIS the old man has, do you really think it will still work?" One of the voices said.

"Of course it will," the other replied. "It might be an old Type-40, but it is still in good condition. It has some faulty circuits, so you probably won't be able to control what time period you end up in, but never the less, it will get you out of here safely."

"That's good; I'm tired of living in 1824. It was just our luck though that this Timelord happened to pop up, but I also fear that he might get in the way of our plans. I want you to get rid of him, do what you can, but just make sure that he's dead by the end of the week."

"I understand sir, you can count on me."

Ian unfortunately couldn't listen to much more of the conversation, because just then Louis Braille and one of his teachers turned the corner, and started to approach Ian.

Louis was wearing a black suit and looked very professional. He was well groomed, but had a strong expression of fear on his face. Nevertheless, he looked ready and prepared for what would be the first demonstration of Braille to the outside world. His teacher who was guiding him was also wearing a similar suit, and had a very serious expression on his face. The two passed by Ian without mentioning a word, and proceeded up the staircase to the entrance of the school for the demonstration.

Louis was aware of the threats that Barbier had presented to him the day before, and was also aware that Braille wasn't his original invention. He knew that if it weren't for Barbier's method called Night Writing, Braille wouldn't exist today.

Night Writing consisted of 12 raised dots per letter, but that was too much to feel under a lone fingertip, so Louis had reduced it to 6 raised dots to avoid confusion. He had invented his own writing system for the blind, and Night Writing was nothing more than an inspiration to him.

As the front door to the school opened, Louis half expected there to be lots of people waiting outside anxiously, and in anticipation for this demonstration. Unfortunately there was not a single person standing outside the door. In fact, the whole street was practically empty. Louis waited, and waited, and waited some more, and after 6 hours of standing in the entrance of the school, somebody finally showed up to view his presentation.

It was an old short man, with a long beard, a hunchback, and a cane. He did not wear a suit, but he had a nice shirt on, and was definitely part of the middle class. His eyes were old and weary, and he did not look impressed at what Louis had to offer.

"You blind scum aren't meant to read," his said in his raspy voice. "You're creations of the devil! You have sinned in your past life, and this is your punishment! Being blind is a sin, and you have to accept the punishment, and part of that punishment entitles that you do not… and will not, have the ability to read or write… ever!"

Louis just stood there without saying a word. He didn't appreciate these types of people accusing him of being the devil, and he had long ago decided that he would never answer to any of them. In his mind, they wouldn't give him respect, wouldn't give him the time of day to defend himself, so why should he try. The old man just stared at Louis for a moment, and then bumped him on the head with his cane.

"Hello! Are you listening to me young man? I just accused you of being the devil; don't you have anything to say for yourself?"

Louis just stood there in utter silence, hoping that the man would soon give up and go away. There was another short pause before the old man hit Louis again, and then decided to walk away.

It had been a rough day for Louis, but it was unfortunately going to get a lot worse. Almost as instantly as the old man had left, Barbier arrived. He stood in front of Louis with his hands crossed, and was contemplating on what to do with Louis. After some time of thinking to himself, Barbier's frown turned into a smile, and he started to laugh at Louis.

"Don't you feel stupid!" he said with a grin. "Nobody cares about your writing system… nobody cares! It serves you right too, if you steal from another person, you must be prepared to face the consequences."

"I didn't steal!" barked Louis in a loud tone. His frustration was getting to him, and he felt like he was going to snap at any moment.

"Oh really, you didn't steal? You take my Night Writing system, make something very similar to it, and you have the audacity to take credit for it?!"

Louis muttered something under his breath, and knew that if he had the ability of sight, he could see where Barbier was standing, and give him a good punch to the nose.

Barbier then proceeded to walk up close to Louis and whispered in his ear.

"If this invention of yours becomes a success, I will order my men to come to your dorm at night… and kill you in your sleep."

Barbier turned to walk away, but before that, he stopped in his tracks to express that he smelled a rat in the room, and that this rat's days were finished.

That night, while everyone was asleep, Ian and the Doctor decided to do some exploring of the school. Both of them were now aware of the full situation involving the mysterious conversation, and the missing key to the TARDIS, and they both thought it would be best to find some answers. They went back to the room where Ian had heard the conversation coming from, and decided to look around.

The room consisted of a small desk, a large bookshelf filled with dusty books, and a small lamp shade that dimly lit the place. It was completely empty, which gave Ian and the Doctor some time to search the place. Fortunately though, it didn't take long for them to find some answers.

The Doctor had put on his reading spectacles, and was examining the books when he came across one written in old Gallifreyan text. The Doctor quickly grabbed the book, but it was stuck in place. After trying to wiggle it around, to try and see if it would come loose, the Doctor suddenly heard a 'click sound', and the whole bookshelf slowly started to swing open.

It led into another room that had a familiar humming noise in it. There was a console in the centre of this room, much like the one in the Doctor's TARDIS, and as Ian and the Doctor looked around the room a little more, they realized, there could be no mistaking it, this room indeed was a control room for another TARDIS.

At closer inspection, the Doctor quickly realized that the control circuits were damaged, and the Doctor came to the quick conclusion that this TARDIS was no longer functioning.

"A broken TARDIS!" the Doctor exclaimed with glee. "But who does it belong to?"

"I don't know Doctor," Ian replied. "However I do think you should come and take a look at these numbers. It says 'Type-53 TARDIS' does that mean anything to you?"

"Oh yes it does Chesterson, it means that this TARDIS is from about the same time period as I am from, and I'm afraid who ever owns this TARDIS is after mine. So I must find my TARDIS before this other person can fly away with it."

"Well let's get to it then."

The two men walked out of the TARDIS, careful to make sure that everything was where it belonged, and that nobody could tell someone had been in there. The Doctor and Ian searched the school for the Doctor's TARDIS for a few more hours, but then gave up when they had no success.

The next morning the Doctor was with the Head Master in his office, helping him file some paperwork. There wasn't a word spoken from either of the two men, until Barbier walked into the room and broke the silence with his complaining.

"Come on old man," he said to the Doctor. "I thought the Head Master had said you would bring me breakfast in bed while I stay at the school for the next few days."

Before the Doctor could answer the Head Master intervened.

"My apologies sir," he said. "This man was helping me with some paperwork. Why don't you get the younger man to bring you your breakfast instead?"

Barbier wrinkled his nose at the Head Master. "You specifically said to me that this would be the duty of the old man, not the young one."

The Head Master sighed and looked down at his paperwork, trying to ignore Barbier. "Well if that's how you feel about it, why don't you go back to bed and I'll get the old man here to bring you your breakfast?"

"No, that won't be necessary anymore. I am already out of bed and ready to start my day. I will go to the kitchen and fetch it myself."

He turned to walk away, but then spoke again. "…because SOME PEOPLE are too lazy to do it for me!"

A few minutes had past, and then all of a sudden a loud noise of a gunshot filled the air. The Doctor and the Head Master heard Barbier scream, and both quickly ran into the hall to assist him.

He was lying on the ground with a bleeding leg, and a hooded figure could be seen running away down the hall. Barbier looked up with a pair of evil eyes at the Doctor and yelled at him.

"NOW YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON'T DO YOUR JOB?! YOU GET OTHER PEOPLE TO TAKE THE BULLET FOR YOU!"

The Head Master looked shocked. "You mean that bullet was meant for the Doctor?"

"OF COURSE IT WAS! THAT HOODED FIGURE THOUGHT I WAS THE OLD MAN GETTING BREAKFAST AND SHOT ME IN THE LEG!"

At this point others had heard the commotion, and had come to help Barbier. Teachers and students, including Ian and Louis, who both seemed surprised at what had just happened, quickly crowded the small hallway to help.

Two teachers had taken Barbier under their arms, and helped escort him to get some medical attention. As they slowly walked down the hallway to leave the school, everybody could hear Barbier scream,

"I WILL GET YOU FOR THIS OLD MAN! AND YOUR LITTLE FRIEND LOUIS BRAILLE TOO!"

A few hours later everything had quieted down, but the Head Master was still on the hunt for the man who shot Barbier. However, everyone was so shocked with what had just happened, nobody noticed the hooded figure leave the school. The search party found nothing, and the Head Master believed it was best to get some patrol around the school for the safety of the students.

The Royal Institute for the Blind had a reputation to keep, so the Head Master didn't dare tell the public about the incident, or the police, so his only choice for patrol around the school was to hire the men who use to work for Barbier, and make a deal with them to keep the shooting incident a secret.

At the same time the patrol started to roam the hallways, Ian and the Doctor both agreed that even though it was their third day of working for the school, they couldn't afford to stay around any longer. The two of them started to search the school for the TARDIS again, but it was becoming harder with all the Navy soldiers walking around the corridors. Fortunately though, they did have some success when they came across a strange looking hatch that led to the basement.

They crept down the old dusty stairs, only to find a small room with two poles in it, and Susan and Barbara chained up looking very scared.

"What happened?" Ian asked.

Both of the girls looked in a terrible shape, and it seemed that they hadn't had anything to eat in days. Their hair was out of place and they had dark rings of sleep around their eyes.

"Oh it was terrible," Susan started. "We were being escorted out of the school as planned, but suddenly the man who was taking us had a change of plans. He said he knew we weren't from this planet, and that he could recognize the wheezing sound of a TARDIS anywhere. He started to ask us all these questions about the TARDIS, what kind it was, what time period we were from… Of course I didn't tell him anything, but then he locked us up in here and told us we'd only get out once we co-operated."

The Doctor was listening very closely to what Susan was saying, and then all of a sudden smiled.

"What are you smiling about Doctor" Ian asked.

"It just occurred to me that the Timelord we've been searching for has been right under our noses the entire time, one of the Head Master's associates is indeed a Timelord!"

"Well that solves one mystery," Ian replied. "But we still need to get the TARDIS back, and we have no idea where the Head Master has hidden it."

"So I guess that means we just keep looking," Barbara concluded.

Meanwhile back at the Head Master's office, Louis was trying to convince the Head Master that Barbier was going to kill him, but the Head Master just smiled at Louis and laughed.

"You really think Barbier is out to kill you?" he asked.

"Yes I do. He thinks I have stolen his invention, he thinks I am the one responsible for shooting him in the leg, and with his men patrolling the school, all he would have to do would be to give the order, and I would be dead."

"Nonsense, I will not allow a student of mine making up stories about other people trying to kill him. It just isn't true!"

"With all due respect Head Master, I have another demonstration of my invention Braille to the public tomorrow. With all the Navy soldiers guarding me at the event, it would be a perfect time to make the kill."

"Again you are speaking nothing but nonsense. Those Navy soldiers are there to protect you from that attempted killer who is on the loose, and I will not allow you to make the demonstration unguarded."

Louis didn't want to hear any more of what the Head Master had to say. He carefully held on to the wall and slowly guided himself out of the room. He knew that if the Head Master couldn't protect him, the only other adults he could trust were Ian and the Doctor.

Later that evening Ian, the Doctor, Susan, and Barbara (also referred to as the TARDIS crew) were sitting in the common room of the school trying to figure out what they would do next. Louis had already told the Doctor how he wanted protection, but the Doctor knew that he couldn't interfere with history.

"I really don't know," the Doctor began. "There isn't a single article ever made that says I protected Louis, so if I'm not written down in the history books, I am not supposed to protect him."

"But don't you see grandfather," Susan pleaded with him. "If you don't interfere with history Louis Braille could die tomorrow."

"Nonsense my child! If the history books state that Louis won't die tomorrow, but will die from illness in 1852, that is the way it will be. I will not interfere with the course of history, you do remember what I told you, don't you? You cannot rewrite history, not one line!"

This time it was Barbara's turn to intervene. "But what if the history books missed something, and you did protect Louis from harm, it just was never was documented. If you don't interfere with history and try to stop Barbier, the future could be altered drastically."

"She's right grandfather. I know the rule of time that you live by, but if you don't break that rule, Louis could die tomorrow."

The Doctor thought about the situation for a moment, and then spoke up again. "Then that settles it. We will all go to the demonstration tomorrow, and I will only interfere with history if it is absolutely necessary, agreed?"

They all nodded at him, and had faith in the Doctor that he would take the right course of action tomorrow. Time was ticking, with no sign of the TARDIS anywhere, and with a set up for a possible murder attempt in the morning, everyone knew that tomorrow would be a very dreary day indeed.

When the sunrise peaked through Louis' bedroom window the next morning, he was already awake and ready for his demonstration. He had a lot of anticipation that he would actually get a crowd today to watch him, but he also knew that if he had a crowd, not even a wounded leg would stop Barbier from getting his so called 'revenge'.

10 Navy guards were outside surrounding the front entrance of the school, and all the students and staff had come to watch the event. Louis was now dressed in a suit, standing in the centre of everyone looking proud, and was ready to show off his invention to the world. The TARDIS crew were standing next to Louis, with the Doctor at Louis' side, and everything seemed to be going according to plan… until the Doctor spotted the Head Master in the crowd.

It wasn't the sight of the Head Master that frightened the Doctor, but it was the fact that standing beside him were his two associates, the same two from the first night the Doctor had arrived in 1824, and he knew that one of them had to be the Timelord he was looking for.

Quickly, while no one else was looking, the Doctor asked Susan if she recognized which associate was the Timelord. She stared at the one who was standing to the left of the Head Master with fear. That associate was dressed in a suit, had a pair of glasses, and short brown hair, but Susan instantly knew that it was this associate who was the Timelord.

Just then, the associate standing to the right of the Head Master whispered something in the Timelord's ear, and slowly walked away from the crowd into the school. The Doctor was now very worried that something would go wrong, and his fear only intensified when he spotted Barbier sitting on the roof of a nearby building.

From a distance he looked very small, but there could be no mistaking him for someone else. He wore his uniform like he always did, and had a long range rifle placed on his right arm in the firing position. The Doctor wished he could warn somebody about Barbier, but he was afraid that if he did, everyone would begin to panic, and he would lose sight of the other Timelord. Whatever could happen next, the Doctor knew that he had to keep his eyes on both Barbier and the Timelord, because any one of them could strike at any moment.

Everything was in place for the demonstration, but shortly before it began, the other Timelord walked up to Susan and glared at her.

"Haven't I seen you before?" he asked.

"You should know," she replied. "You were the one who locked me and my friend in the basement for three days."

"Ah yes, that's right… and if you try any funny business here today, I have ordered the other associate of the Head Master to shoot all four of you."

The Doctor walked up to the other Timelord, and put himself in front of Susan. "And might the Head Master know about your plan?" the Doctor inquired.

"No," replied the Timelord. "…and that's the beauty of it! I'm forced to stay undercover just like you, but if you do anything that threatens to blow that cover, I will get the 'hooded figure' to shoot you dead."

"So it is YOU'RE friend who is responsible for Barbier's injured leg," remarked the Doctor.

"He's not my friend, he's a human I pay to rid the world of certain people. You know old man, I really don't want to cause you any harm, I just want to get out of 1824 and back to my own time period, but the only way I can do that is if I leave you stranded here."

"Yes I know, we saw your broken TARDIS and-"

The Doctor trailed off at the sight of Barbier raising his gun high in the air.

"And what?" the Timelord asked.

The Doctor ignored the Timelord, and kept a close eye on Barbier. Just then the Doctor noticed one of Barbier's Navy soldiers look up at Barbier and nod. He then proceeded to aim his own rifle at Louis and fired.

Without thinking, the Doctor quickly pushed the Timelord in front of the line of fire, and the bullet went straight through his chest. The dead Timelord fell to the ground in front of an unharmed Louis, who couldn't have seen what happened, and was totally oblivious to the situation.

At that moment though, everybody started to scream and run. A few more shots had been fired, and all of the Navy soldiers ran down the street and disappeared. Through all the chaos the Doctor noticed Barbier wasn't sitting on the roof anymore, and the Doctor then decided to guide Louis safely inside the school. The rest of the teachers were busy doing the same for the other students, and once everybody was safely inside, the Head Master tried his best to calm everybody down. Lots of the students were asking 'what happened?' or 'who got shot?' and the Head Master tried to answer the questions to the best of his abilities.

The Doctor was worried that the Timelord would change his appearance, and would come back to create more trouble, but when he looked out the window, the Doctor saw the other Timelord's body still laying on the ground motionless.

"Haha!" the Doctor remarked to himself. "The Timelord was already on his last body! What good stroke of luck this is!"

His smile then shortly turned to a serious expression when he saw the hooded figure lying on the ground, not far from the Timelord, with a bullet through his chest as well.

"Oh my, he must have accidently gotten shot when the soldiers fled to safety."

The Doctor then turned away from the window and went back to helping the students calm down. The havoc was over, everyone was safe, but many people were still concerned about their own safety. The Head Master explained to the school that what had happened here today, would never leave the four walls of the building. Nobody should ever know of this incident, and because the hooded figure was dead, the Head Master could convince all the students and staff that the shots were fired from this masked murderer, and not from one of Barbier's soldiers. The students however, still needed proof, so the Head Master brought them outside one by one to assess the situation themselves, and touch the hooded figures body so they could feel there was no pulse within him.

Barbier and his men may have escaped, but the rest of the world seemed a peaceful place again. The Doctor however, was still reflecting on what he just did. In his own mind, he should have never pushed that Timelord in front of the line of fire. It was a reflex, he couldn't have helped it, but he also couldn't help thinking that the bullet should have hit Louis instead. There was no guarantee the shot was going to kill Mr. Braille, and after a short time of recovery he could have been back on his feet again.

As the Doctor thought to himself some more, he noticed the Head Master walk up to him with a very serious expression.

"I suppose I should thank you, if it weren't for you, a student of mine could have been killed today, and this school's reputation could have suffered greatly."

Barbara overheard this remark and decided to give the Head Master a piece of her mind. "Is that all you care about?" she asked. "Your school's reputation, you don't even care about Louis' well being."

"Of course I do! You didn't even give me a chance to finish! I admit, I may be many things, people have often told me I'm cruel and insensitive… but one thing is for sure, I do generally care about the well being of my students, otherwise I wouldn't have taken this job in the first place."

"I wish," Louis said, who happened to have been standing next to the Doctor, and heard the whole conversation. "You do realize that if there was another school for blind men in France, I would leave this place in an instance."

"But there isn't another school is there?" the Head Master snapped. There was a short pause and then he said to Louis in a calm voice, "…but I do believe I owe you an apology young man. You tried to warn me of the dangers, and I didn't listen. I promise that if you can keep this incident a secret from your family, we can arrange a deal of some sort. I know a lot of people in France who could maybe start advertising your unique Braille system around the city…"

Louis smiled at the thought of publicity, and held out his hand for the Head Master to shake. After that, the Head Master turned towards the Doctor and sighed.

"For saving one of my students lives, I am giving you your wooden box back. I have already asked a few of my men to bring it down from the safe in the attic, and it is waiting in my office when you are ready."

The Doctor smiled, and thanked the Head Master for his co-operation. Susan also thanked the man, but made a remark that they still didn't have the key to the TARDIS.

"You mean this key?" Louis asked as he held out the key to the TARDIS. "I was walking through the hallway when my bare foot happened to step upon it."

The Doctor took the key from Louis' hand, thanked him for everything he had done, and ran back to the Head Master's office with Ian, Susan, and Barbara close behind. Being in 1824 for four days had taken a toll on all of them, and they couldn't wait to get back to the TARDIS, where they could be surrounded by technology again.

As the doors to the TARDIS opened, the four of them all smiled at the sound of the familiar humming noise. It was good to be back somewhere where you could call home, and it was good to know that they would never have to see the mad man Barbier or the Head Master ever again. The Doctor was almost ready to leave, when he remembered something important.

"Oh my, I almost forgot," he said as he ran into another room in the TARDIS. He rummaged through an old hope chest until he found a small item that looked like a grenade. He ran out of the TARDIS, down the hall to where the other Timelord's TARDIS was standing, opened the bookshelf, and threw the grenade-like object in it. The bookshelf then closed, and the Doctor could hear the faint sound of an explosion.

"There," he said out loud. "Self imploding bomb! That should keep anybody from accidentally coming across this broken TARDIS in the future!"

He smiled and headed back to his own time machine, and as Louis Braille heard the faint sound of the wheezing TARDIS from his classroom, he knew that he'd probably never see the Doctor again, but he also knew that from now on things would be different around the school. The students would start to use his method of Braille, and the Head Master would help distribute it around the world for other blind children to enjoy.

Unfortunately though, things didn't go exactly according to plan. Even though Louis would later teach at this school, and all his students would adore the method of Braille, the general public would still despise it, and Braille wouldn't reach the public outside of the school for many decades. Louis was considered a failure in his time, nobody but the students in the Royal Institute for the Blind would use Braille, and everybody else hated Louis. He would later die in 1852 due to illness, and it would only be after his death that the rest of the world would start to use Braille. However, the name Louis Braille would be passed down from generation to generation, and the Doctor knew that his legacy would still be alive in the 51st century, after all… even some Timelords are blind and need to read.


End file.
